Mobile banking

Prof. Manu Gupta
A mobile phone to no longer a simple device to make calls. It’s become the hub for all your activities, from e-mailing and browsing to paying bills and transferring money. Over the last few years, the mobile and wireless market has been one of the fastest growing market in the world and it is still growing at a rapid pace. Mobile phones have become an essential communication tool for almost every individual. Advent of mCommerce has managed to take mobile value added services to next level, adding tremendous  value to telecommunication industry. Mobile  banking which is an integral part of mCommerce. It creates new convenient communication and fast financial transactional channel for mobile users which is accessible from anywhere, anytime. Checking account information, balance available, credit/debit card information, cheque status, setting alerts, payment reminders, locating ATMs and bank branches, accessing mini statement, accessing loan and equity statements, insurance policy  management, placing orders for cheque books etc via mobile phones are some of the services offered in mobile banking. With multiple access channels such as SMS, downloadable client, mobile Internet (WAP) mobile banking is encouraging mobile  users more to explore the service.
Mobile banking makes banking easy
With the technological growth, mobile banking is gaining popularity over internet banking. In case of internet or online banking you need a computer and internet connection  to access your account  and this becomes a problem during urgency or when you don’t  have internet connection. However this is not a problem with mobile banking as you will get network connection even in the remote areas.
Since the generation has reached an era where irrespective of poor, rich, educated or uneducated everyone has a mobile with them for sure – you can send and or receive money from and to anywhere in India in less than a second. This system eliminates your unnecessary  time spent on going to bank and standing queues.
The money transferring service – sending or receiving money is called as mobile payment or m.payment. Transferring money through mobile is much faster and safer than getting or receiving money by hard cash, cheque or through net banking. Though banks are facilitating this mobile payment service to send and receive money for us, however the functionality happens only through National Payment Corporation of India (NPC).
As per the recent statistics, people who use internet in India about 3 crore people whereas, people who use mobile are about 90 crores in number. Irrespective of cities or villages the mobile phones have reached everyone without any differences. Making use of this widely accepted and affordable network among the people, banks have decided to introduce  this service for money transfers.
The efforts of money transfers, withdrawal and other transactions have reduced the operational burden of banks by deploying ATM services across the country. However, the rental amount for the ATM occupancies, security guards, air-conditioning charges etc. are incurring additional expenses of the banks. Now all these expenses will be reduced a lot due to mobile banking services.
Information such as mini-statement of your account, insurance and mutual fund statement, loan updates, credit card statements etc. can be obtained on your mobile phone. Earlier the facility to send and receive money service was provided only on smartphones which is costlier comparing to a normal mobile and not every mobile user can afford to buy smartphones. So, earlier mobile payment was used only by a few people for money transfers. But, with the availability of new user friendly  applications and software on less expensive mobile phones, mobile banking through your cell phone has become simpler. As a result of this, more and more people are attracted towards it.
Mobile banking keeps you updated with any activity done in your account. For instance a money withdrawal, money transfer and other transactions to and from your account will be brought to your knowledge via SMS.
Whether it is a holiday, working day or non-working day, or festive season – never worry about transferring money as the mobile banking is always with you. To activate this facility, you will have to fill in the respective form at your bank. Using this, not just money transaction but can also can perform banking tasks like, stop payment for your cheque, retrieve new ATM PIN number if it is lost, etc from your mobile itself.
Mobile banking is not only used for banking service but also serves as a way to sell the products of bank such as credit cards, loans etc. If you are interested in stock market and other real time investment then this is the best option for you. With this modern technology of banking you can keep yourself updated with portfolio management services, real-time stock and other news on stock market.
India awaits boom in mobile banking
Despite these innovative products, mobile banking is yet to make a headway in the country. While online banking has picked up pace, mobile banking remains subdued. One reason is that when a new technology comes into the market, it takes time for people to familiarize themselves with it, which is why the growth is slow.
The worst part is that our people haven’t learned much about this easy and handy system to transfer money and they are still standing in queues and wasting their efficient time, just because most of us are unaware of how to use this advancement or a few of us still feeling it is too technical to handle all these which is not true.
Moreover, the generation that is hooked on to its mobile phones rarely indulges in banking activities. On the other hand, the older generation, that is 40-50 year old, is not comfortable  with smartphones. However, since the youth prefer phones to PCs, mobile banking will be the preferred channel in the future.
Phone technology is another problem area as there are different platforms of mobile banking for different phones. While smartphones requires the downloading of apps, the software used for other types of phones is different. Moreover, within smartphones, the platforms differ for a BlackBerry and an Android phone. Increased penetration of mobile phones from smaller manufacturers makes it difficult to offer a standardized product. However, the advent of smartphones has definitely spelt good news for the mobile banking segment.
It is well recognized that mobile phones have immense potential of conducting financial transactions thus leading the financial growth with lot of convenience and much reduced cost. For inclusive growth, the benefits of mobile banking should reach to the common man at the remotest locations in the country. For this all stakeholders like Regulators. Govt. telecom service providers and mobile device manufactures need to make efforts so that penetration of mobile banking reaches from high-end to low-end users and from metros to the middle towns and rural areas. Inclusion of non-banking population in financial main stream will benefit all. There is also need to generate awareness about the mobile banking so that more and more people use it for their benefit. The day is not far away when mobile banking becomes the de facto banking channel for an car-rider as also a rickshaw-puller.

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